Hideo Nomo Has a Posse

Brian Fremeau presents a solid visualization of the interaction among AP top-ranked college football programs in 1989 and in 2009, showing clearly that the elite programs don’t play each other as much as they used to. It would be interesting to see it broken down by year to see if it’s an out and out decline over time or if there have  been peaks and valleys. Fremeau argues that conference expansion is the likely the reason, noting that in 1989, 25 FBS teams were independent, whereas in 2009 only 3 programs remained so, none of which were ranked by the AP.

Not much of a college football guy myself- maybe ‘cos the ole alma mater had no program- but it’s always awesome to see complex data represented in a simple, intuitive manner. Props to Fremeau. ¶